In flight training, pilots are trained and tested on their ability to recover from unusual attitudes. As leaders, we face the same challenge from employees. In our continuing series UTDI President and pilot Greg Schinkel links flying and leadership to achieve high altitude performance.

Zig Ziglar a well know professional speaker and trainer said, “Your attitude determines your altitude,” reinforcing what most of us realize, that our attitude, thinking and beliefs affects how we treat people and in turn how successful we are.

In flying, the attitude of the aircraft is where the nose is pointed relative to the horizon. A cruise attitude is one where you achieve straight and level flight. A nose-up attitude will typically help gain altitude and a nose down attitude will cause you to lose altitude.

Pull the stick too far back too fast and your aircraft will stall. Many people incorrectly assume that stalling an aircraft means that the engine stops. An aircraft stalls when the air moving over the wing is not moving fast enough to maintain flight. A stall results in the nose of the aircraft dropping quickly and possibly turning and entering a spin.

Leaders with a nose-up attitude may experience career stall and death spiral dive

In a similar way, when a leader or individual thinks too highly of themselves and sticks their nose up to high too fast, their personal performance may stall and their career might enter a spiral dive. Employees want to work for confident, achievement-oriented leaders who are approachable and encourage others to achieve their best.

Incorrect recovery from unusual attitude may cause death!

When an aircraft enters a spin after stalling, the pilot has a natural inclination to try and use the ailerons (wing flaps) to bring the plane level. The real solution is to apply the rudder (on the tail) to the opposite direction of the spin and hold it long enough for the airplane to react to the input and correct the spin.

Employees with unusual attitudes

Attitudes in people are not visible. Managers should be careful not to label people as having bad attitudes. It is what people say and do that needs to be addressed with consequences. Applying the right corrective measure and being persistent, similar to holding the rudder long enough to correct the spinning aircraft, can turn around many employees.

Steps to correcting unusual attitudes in employees

1. Identify the specific behaviors you want to change and what you expect in its place. Note that behaviors can include negative communication that impacts the performance of employees who work with the individual. 2. Define and describe the consequences of not correcting the attitude. Not correcting an unusual attitude in an aircraft will ultimately turn into a spiral dive and death. An employee who does not correct a behavior at work will result in career death. 3. Document your discussion to make it progressive. In later stages ensure that the individual signs the memo to indicate that they have read it. 4. Catch the employee doing something right and recognize it verbally. Only noticing the bad behaviors will tend to perpetuate them. Reinforce the good behaviors and the progress being made to build positive momentum. 5. For serious situations involve your human resources department, manager or an outside coach or expert.

How leaders contribute to this problem

• Being unclear about expectations
• Noticing mostly problems and never noticing good things – employees may learn that the way to get recognized is to screw up
• Not communicating in a timely, thorough manner
• Using too much sarcasm in communication
• Heaping too much work on the good employees so they become resentful for bailing out the manager

Unique Training & Development Inc. (UTDI) focuses on developing the leadership skills of managers, supervisors, team leaders and lead hands. Solutions are tailored to specific client needs and can be scaled to fit most budgets and time constraints.

(800)622-6437 or (519)685-2116 or email info@uniquedevelopment.com

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